Yahoo

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Yahoo is now part of Oath, a diverse house of 50+ media and technology brands that engages over a billion people around the world. Create brand love with us.

[yahoo]

Yahoo News Video Series ‘Cities Rising: Rebuilding America’ Returns Summer 2017

By Tony Maciulis, Head of News, Yahoo Studios

We’re excited to announce that Cities Rising: Rebuilding America, a Yahoo News docuseries, is returning this summer with all new episodes. Join Yahoo for an up-close and personal look at three iconic U.S. cities, as told over two episodes each.

In the first episode, launching today, Katie Couric visits Cleveland, a city residents like to call “the best location in the nation.” During her tour she visits the Cleveland Clinic, where she checks out a new breakthrough technology, the HoloLens, that is transforming the study of the human anatomy. Couric also visits the Cleveland Browns stadium with WKYC’s sports director, Jim Donovan, who discusses the Cavaliers’ historic 2016 NBA championship. She samples local treats at West Side Market, the oldest operating indoor-outdoor market space in the city, and catches up with Matthew McConaughey, who filmed his new movie in Cleveland and has plans to launch his Just Keep Livin Foundation curriculum there at John Adams High School.

New episodes of Cities Rising: Rebuilding America will publish twice a month on Yahoo. The visit to Cleveland is followed by stops in New York City’s largest and most diverse area, the borough of Queens, and finally the “Valley of the Sun,” Phoenix. The first episode of each installment explores how the city is making pivotal changes to reinvent itself, while taking a look at issues that are core to rebuilding: education, the economy and infrastructure. The second episode will focus on fun — the arts and culture, sports, food and nightlife scenes that make life exciting in the city.

Full episodes and additional clips are available at yahoo.com/cities-rising.

[yahoo]

Full of Pride

By Chris Kolk, Chair of Yahoo Pride

June is recognized globally as a time of reflection and celebration for the LGBTQ community. Every year, Pride celebrations are held around the world to commemorate the Stonewall Riots in New York, the anniversary of the Supreme Court case of Obergefell v. Hodges, and individuals such as Harvey Milk and Audrey Lorde who helped pave the way for LGBTQ rights. This month, we encourage you to take a moment to remember those who took a stand for equality and join those who are still fighting for LGBTQ rights. The fight for equality is not something of the past, but the responsibility of those living in the present.

Here at Yahoo, we’re recognizing these individuals and milestones by celebrating all month long with our Yahoo Pride Employee Resource Group (ERG) and by leveraging the power of our products and network to drive inclusivity. Here’s just some what we have planned:

Yahoo Mail: Share your Pride with family and friends all month long by using our Pride-themed stationery

Yahoo Homepage: During Pride weekend, June 23 – 25, our Yahoo Homepage will commemorate this important time, highlighting our continued commitment to diversity

Yahoo Billboard: If you’re driving north into San Francisco, CA on Interstate 80, take a look at our iconic billboard, which will be painted rainbow in celebration with messages of encouragement

Yahoo is committed to making our company a best place to work for the LGBTQ community and has been recognized for the past 10 years by the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index, scoring a perfect 100 each time. With the help of our ERG, we strive to maintain a strong culture of diversity and equality by building a safe workplace. We continually educate our employees on LGBTQ rights to ensure our employees can always feel proud of who they are. Happy Pride Month to all of our users and our employees!

[yahoo]

Yahoo Finance Delivers Nearly 7 Million Total Live Views for Second Annual Berkshire Hathaway Live Stream

By Andy Serwer, Editor-in-Chief of Yahoo Finance

On Saturday, May 6, Yahoo Finance live-streamed the Berkshire Hathaway annual shareholders meeting to an audience of millions around the globe.

The second annual live stream reached a global audience of 1.43 million unique viewers on Yahoo, across all devices, up 30% from 2016. Engagement also increased significantly this year, with more than 3.1 million total live views on Yahoo, up over 72% from 2016. Audiences spent a total of 24.7 million minutes on Yahoo, up 38% from 2016, watching Berkshire Hathaway Chairman & CEO Warren Buffett, and Vice Chairman Charlie Munger, share their insights and advice, live from the CenturyLink Center in Omaha.  

Additionally, through our live streaming partners in China, we saw another 3.89 million total live views for a combined 6.99 million total live views worldwide.

In addition to VOD replay on the site, Yahoo Finance has also made an audio replay of the meeting and accompanying interviews available via podcast for the first time ever, through a partnership with Acast. Find it on iTunes and other podcast stores now.

Be sure to check out all of our coverage on Yahoo Finance.

[yahoo]

Introducing  Yahoo’s Neurodiversity Employee Resource Group

By Margenett Moore-Roberts, Global Head of Inclusive Diversity 

I am excited to announce the creation of Yahoo’s newest Employee Resource Group (ERG) focused on Neurodiversity, spearheaded by Margaux Joffe, Yahoo’s Head of Production, Global Marketing Department. The ERG’s mission is to champion neurodiversity at Yahoo in order to create an inclusive workplace for minds of all kinds.

If you’re unfamiliar, neurodiversity refers to differences in learning and attention as normal variations of the human brain. At Yahoo, we recognize minds of all kinds and respect all forms of human variations – from dyslexia, to ADHD, to the autistic spectrum and more. In partnership with Yahoo’s Office of Inclusive Diversity (OID), the new Neurodiversity ERG will help encourage that anyone with these differences can utilize their strengths at work and thrive through one another’s support, as well as supports OID's mission of advancing diversity and inclusion in Yahoo's workforce, workplace and marketplace.

Margaux is the chair of the program and her passion stems from her personal experience in being diagnosed with ADHD three years ago, when she was well into adulthood. She felt compelled to found the Kaleidoscope Society, an empowerment project for women with ADHD which shines a light on inspiring stories of trailblazing women with ADHD for its more than 700 members. After joining Yahoo and talking to the OID about their commitment to creating an inclusive working environment, she proposed the idea of creating a Neurodiversity ERG in order to extend the OID’s efforts to colleagues (like herself) with neurological differences.

The ERG is hitting the ground running, and the first internal campaign is introducing poster series and screens in all offices globally to highlight the strengths associated with a few neurological differences such as Autism, ADHD, Dyslexia and OCD. The ERG will also meet regularly to provide support to relevant members of the Yahoo community and collaborate on how to grow and bring awareness to their mission. Four initial focuses of the program include: learning the needs of employees, creating a community of support, providing resources at Yahoo and increasing the cultural competency of managers so they can effectively manage their diverse teams.

In the coming months, the ERG will work with the OID and Human Resources to ensure Neurodiversity is incorporated into our Inclusion strategy and our manager competencies.

[yahoo]

Yahoo Finance Hosts Live Stream of Berkshire Hathaway Annual Shareholders Meeting

By Andy Serwer, Yahoo Finance Editor-in-Chief

Tune in as Yahoo hosts our second live stream of Berkshire Hathaway’s annual shareholders meeting on Saturday, May 6. Yahoo Finance Editor-in-Chief Andy Serwer will be on-the-ground at CenturyLink Center Omaha, alongside Yahoo News & Finance Anchor Bianna Golodryga and Yahoo Finance Anchor Jennifer Rogers, with insight, analysis and news-making interviews. For the second year in a row, audiences will be able to watch live on Yahoo Finance – across desktop, tablet and mobile – as Chairman and CEO Warren Buffett and his right-hand man Charlie Munger share their unscripted views on the company, the markets, the administration and whatever other topic that may come up. The shareholders meeting live stream on Yahoo Finance will once again be available in both English and Mandarin, with VOD replay available for 30 days following the meeting.

The schedule of live coverage includes:

10:00am ET – Yahoo Finance pre-show

10:15am ET – Live stream of morning session, featuring the Q&A with Buffett and Munger

1:00pm ET – Yahoo Finance Halftime Report

2:00pm ET – Live stream of afternoon session, featuring additional Q&A and business meeting

4:30pm ET – Yahoo Finance post-show wrap-up

Throughout the Pre-show and Halftime Report we’ll also feature a number of live and pre-taped interviews with the Yahoo Finance editorial team, including: Warren Buffett, Chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway; Todd Combs, Investment Manager for Berkshire Hathaway, and Ted Weschler, Portfolio Manager for Berkshire Hathaway; Coca Cola Chairman Muhtar Kent and newly appointed CEO, James Quincey; actress and Buffett friend, Glenn Close; Dairy Queen CEO John Gainor; former Vanguard CEO Jack Bogle; Brooks Running CEO Jim Weber; Chair, CEO and Chief Designer of Kathy Ireland Worldwide, Kathy Ireland, and many others. 

This year, Yahoo Finance will also make an audio replay of the meeting and accompanying interviews available via podcast, through a partnership with Acast. With more than 50 million monthly listens to more than 1,000 shows globally, Acast is the world’s leading technology infrastructure for audio on demand and podcasts.

The Yahoo Finance’s Berkshire Hathaway podcast will be available on iTunes and other podcast stores, starting Monday, May 8. For more information on the Berkshire Hathaway Live Stream, visit the landing page on Yahoo Finance and be sure to follow the conversation on Twitter with @YahooFinance #BRKLiveStream.

[yahoo]

Amica Insurance Teams Up with Yahoo for New Campaign to Help Consumers Prepare for Life’s Biggest Moments

We’re excited to partner with Amica Insurance for its new campaign to help consumers, especially millennials, prepare for their biggest milestones in life. 

Working with Yahoo Storytellers, Amica is introducing Things They Don’t Tell You About, a new branded destination that offers valuable information and advice on topics from buying a car, to purchasing a home, to starting a family. Amica’s new campaign is geared towards millennials, many of whom are facing important decisions around these major milestones for the first time. Consumers can now access exclusive videos and editorial features on Things They Don’t Tell You About to help them better understand and navigate their insurance needs.

As part of this campaign, Amica will also align with Yahoo Finance’s popular live and short form video programming. Amica will connect with viewers through custom integrations, including three branded segments alongside episodes of “Midday Movers” and “Now I Get It” on Yahoo Finance. “Midday Movers” is a daily live show on Yahoo Finance that analyzes the top stories and stocks moving the market right now, discusses recent earnings reports and economic data and features can’t miss interviews with the top money managers and traders on Wall Street. “Now I Get It” is a popular video series on Yahoo Finance that explains the business concepts and jargon from the biggest financial stories of the day. With branded segments appearing at the end of each episode, Amica will share tips and perspectives for consumers on purchasing insurance. Amica will also run extensive video, native and display advertising across Yahoo properties to amplify the sponsorship and drive consumers to Things They Don’t Tell You About.

Launched in 2016, Yahoo Storytellers is a full service content marketing studio, producing premium video and editorial content for brands that is also backed by data. Yahoo Finance is the leading business news site, known for its unrivaled access to financial insights and news. In 2016, audiences spent nearly 13 million hours watching Yahoo Finance’s three daily live shows including Market Movers, Midday Movers and The Final Round. Additionally, time spent watching video across Yahoo’s properties has increased 85% year over year, creating exciting new opportunities for marketers.

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Researching the Definition of Good Online Conversations and How They Should Rank with the Yahoo News Annotated Comments Corpus

By Courtney Napoles, Aasish Pappu, Joel Tetreault

Comment threads following online news articles often range from vacuous to hateful. That said, good conversations do occur online, with people expressing different viewpoints and attempting to inform, convince, or better understand the other side, even if they can get lost among the multitude of unconstructive comments. At Yahoo Research, we show in recent statistical experiments that automatically identifying and ranking good conversations on top will cultivate a more civil and constructive atmosphere in online communities and potentially encourage participation from more users [1].

In an effort to foster more respectful online discussions and encourage more research among academics surrounding comments, we present the Yahoo News Annotated Comments Corpus (YNACC) via our data sharing program, Webscope. The corpus contains 522K comments from 140K comment threads posted in response to online news articles, and contains manual annotations for a subset of 2.4K comment threads and 9.2K comments. The annotations include 6 attributes of individual comments: sentiment, tone, agreement with other commenters, topic of the comment, intended audience, and persuasiveness. The annotations also include 3 attributes of threads: constructiveness, agreeability within the conversation, and type of conversation, i.e., flamewars vs positive/respectful [2].

Annotated conversations in the YNACC corpus were used to create a predictive algorithm and train statistical models to automatically detect “good” conversations. We call these good conversations ERICs: Engaging, Respectful, and/or Informative Conversations, and they are characterized by:

A respectful exchange of ideas, opinions, and/or information in response to a given topic or topics.

Opinions expressed as an attempt to elicit a dialogue or persuade.

Comments that seek to contribute some new information or perspective on the relevant topic.

Example of an ERIC conversation (top) and a non-ERIC conversation (bottom)

ERICs have no single identifying attribute. A good conversation is determined by how many respectful, engaging, and persuading comments are present. For instance, an exchange where communicants are in total agreement throughout can be an ERIC, as can an exchange with a heated disagreement. Our algorithm ranks either of these types of exchanges higher than those that lack ERICs. Many of the labels for the ERICs in our dataset are the result of a new coding scheme (annotation taxonomy) we developed and are for characteristics of online conversations not captured by traditional argumentation or dialogue features. Some of the labels we collected have been annotated in previous work [3,4], and this is the first time they are aggregated in a single corpus at the dialogue level.

Additionally, we collected annotations on 1K threads from the Internet Argument Corpus, representing another domain of online debates. Our corpus and annotation scheme is the first exploration of how characteristics of individual comments contribute to the dialogue-level classification of an exchange. We hope YNACC will facilitate research to understand ERICs and other aspects of dialogue in general.

The technical contributions of this dataset are described in two scientific papers:

[1] Courtney Napoles, Aasish Pappu, and Joel Tetreault. “Automatically Identifying Good Conversations Online (Yes, they do exist!)”. In Proceedings of ICWSM'17.

[2] Courtney Napoles, Joel Tetreault, Aasish Pappu, Enrica Rosato and Brian Provenzale. 2017. “Finding Good Conversations Online: The Yahoo News Annotated Comments Corpus”. In Proceedings of The 11th Linguistic Annotation Workshop (LAW-XI).

References:

[3] Rob Abbott, Brian Ecker, Pranav Anand, and Marilyn Walker. Internet Argument Corpus 2.0: An SQL schema for dialogic social media and the corpora to go with it. LREC 2016.

[4] Marilyn Walker, Jean Fox Tree, Pranav Anand, Rob Abbott, and Joseph King. A corpus for research on deliberation and debate. LREC 2012.

[yahoo]

Introducing Yahoo Sports Headlines on iOS and Android

By Matt Edelman, Product Manager

The mobile industry is shifting the way we consume video content. At Yahoo, with our more than 650 million mobile users (and growing), continuing to create new experiences on these devices remains a top priority. Today we're proud to introduce Yahoo Sports Headlines, a new visual way to tap through the day's tops stories.   

Available in our popular Yahoo Sports app, Headlines are quick, high quality videos presented in an easy to view portrait format. Fans can catch up on the latest news by tapping through each video and simply swipe up to read the entire article. The videos are easy to comment on in the app and can be shared on social networks. The new Headlines tab on the Yahoo Sports app can be found on both iOS and Android.  

This is just the beginning for our new take on mobile video. Over the coming year, we plan to continue evolving the product and rolling it out across more Yahoo properties so stay tuned!

[yahoomail]

Access The Yahoo Mail App Now with Any Email Address

By Josh Jacobson, Senior Director of Product Management

Staying on top of things on a daily basis isn’t easy. The Yahoo Mail app team is always looking to create new features that help people stay organized – from customizable swipes and people-only notifications, to our recently announced top search results. These features have helped make reading, organizing and sending emails easier than ever, and our users have thanked us by making Yahoo Mail one of the top-rated email apps for iOS and Android. Today, we’re giving more people the opportunity to experience the Yahoo Mail app, without having to switch to a brand new email address. Now, you can use the app with your Gmail, Outlook or AOL email address.

Read on to learn more about this update and some of the Yahoo Mail features you can start enjoying today. You’re on your way to a more organized life!

So, how does it work? From the welcome screen, tap your email provider, use your Gmail, Outlook or AOL email address to create a Yahoo account, and give Yahoo permission to sync your email messages in the Mail app. Immediately start enjoying an organized inbox experience.

The Yahoo Mail app has a number of unique features, and below are just a few that you can start taking advantage of today:

Relevant search results: Spend less time searching for the emails you need. Now, when you search your email using a keyword, we’ll highlight the most relevant messages.

People-only notifications: Get notified only when you receive a new email from a person, not companies or newsletters.

Customizable swipes: Choose which action appears when you swipe left or right on a message, including delete, archive, move and more.

Contacts: Yahoo Mail displays comprehensive, editable contact cards, powered by Xobni, that detect all the email addresses and phone numbers associated with that person. We also pull photos from Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook, so you’ll see great images from senders more often.

Personalized themes and stationery: Make your inbox more personalized with custom themes and your notes more modern with stationery from Paperless Post.

Ditch your password:  Never stress about remembering your password again. Enable Account Key for secure, password-free sign in.

Multiple mailbox management: If you already have a Yahoo email account, you can easily connect and manage email accounts from Gmail, Outlook.com, Hotmail and AOL.

The new Yahoo Mail app is available in the App Store (iOS 4.15) and Google Play (Android 5.15). Check it out and let us know what you think — just go to Settings and tap “Send Feedback.”

[yahoo]

Yahoo Sports Announces Live Show Coverage for the NFL Draft

By Alan Springer, Executive Producer

On Thursday, April 27 beginning at 8pm ET, the Yahoo Sports team will air a live show covering the NFL Draft. Host Mike Hill will be joined by Charles Robinson, Pat Forde, Tank Williams, Brad Evans, Brandon Funston and former Super Bowl champion Tony Siragusa in our New York City studios along with live reports and interviews from Eric Edholm with the draft’s top prospects from Philadelphia. This much-anticipated live event on Yahoo will be sponsored by FX, which will spotlight its upcoming series "Snowfall" through video advertising.

The Yahoo Sports team will bring NFL fans expert football and fantasy analysis, breaking news and live questions from social media throughout the entire first round. In addition on Day 1, we’ll have Matt Kelley from Player Profiler with analytics, player comparisons and breakdown numbers you won't find anywhere else.

On Friday, Day 2 of the draft, featuring rounds two and three, the Yahoo Sports coverage will transform into an all-fantasy cast from 7pm - 8:30pm ET. Streaming on Yahoo Sports and Facebook Live, we’ll use our signature Fantasy Football Live style to project numbers of the incoming rookies as well as where draftees still on the board could find their perfect fit. Our crew, featuring Liz Loza, Andy Behrens, Scott Pianowkski and Dalton Del Don, will interact with fans throughout the broadcast via Facebook Live to find out what’s on the viewers’ minds about their favorite teams. Additionally, we’ll have ears on the ground in Philadelphia for any breaking news as well as possible interviews with the drafted prospects.

[yahoosearch]

All Aboard, Captain is Now on Messenger!

By Conrad Wai, VP, Product Management

We’re excited to bring Captain to Facebook Messenger as part of the first wave of bots on the newly announced Chat Extensions feature, enabling people to use Captain seamlessly with their friends and family right in Messenger.

Captain on Messenger streamlines organization among groups, family, and friends for managing activities with a shared tasks list. Use Captain to figure out who’s bringing what on your next backpacking trip or plan for an upcoming potluck dinner – without leaving Messenger. With Captain, you can make plans with your favorite people without overloading them with tons of notifications and long, unorganized lists of requests and questions.

“We are delighted that Yahoo is launching Captain on Messenger,” said Stan Chudnovsky, Vice President of Product for Messenger. “This bot will help users simplify group coordination, which can get harder the larger the group and longer the thread. This experience makes that interaction seamless.”

To start using Captain on Messenger, just add the bot to your group conversation.

We launched Captain last month for text messaging to help families stay organized. We continue to iterate on our products to help users make life easier and more fun. Give Captain a try today and share feedback directly from the bot!

[staff]

Cabana, by Tumblr. Hang out and watch stuff.

Get the iOS app

Hey! We made a new iPhone app. It’s called Cabana and it’s for hanging out with friends and watching videos.

Wait, a whole new app?

Yup, a whole new app.

Really?

Yeah! It’s good. You just open it, video chat with up to five friends, and watch stuff together.

Hey, neat. Anything else I should know?

Nah, it’s pretty simple. It looks like that👇 . We’ve got some ideas about where to go with it, but hey, all in good time. 

<3 Tumblr

Oh, p.s., the Android version should be out in a few weeks. Enjoy. 

[yahoo]

Yahoo News Investigation | Weed & the American Family

By Martha Nelson, Global Editor in Chief

The topic of marijuana is at a tipping point. While some aspects of this tectonic shift in American society have been well covered – legalization, the business boom, the political divides – its impact on our most important relationships, those inside our homes, has been curiously underexamined.

Leveraging the power of the Yahoo network, Weed & the American Family is an in-depth and thoughtful examination of the way cannabis is affecting our families – from the generational split over usage, to shifting attitudes, to its impact on parenting and relationships.   

At the center of our project is an exclusive Yahoo News/Marist Poll which offers the most comprehensive examination of this hot topic – Weed & the American Family.

This survey of 1,122 adults in America found that marijuana use has become surprisingly acceptable, particularly in families where parents are users. Having used – or merely tried – marijuana makes you much less concerned about its effect on your family, suggesting that as weed becomes more widespread in the age of legalization, more Americans will begin to feel the same way.  

See the full poll results here: http://maristpoll.marist.edu/yahoo-newsmarist-poll/

Our examination includes an interview with former U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy, who co-founded an anti-legalization group called Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM); a discussion with Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper about the lessons he's learned as a reluctant leader on the front lines of the marijuana revolution; and an intimate conversation with musician, mother and weed advocate Melissa Etheridge. We also produced video diaries of families who share how marijuana has affected their lives, both negatively and positively, including a compelling account of a mother using marijuana to treat postpartum depression and anxiety.

We hope that as you read through our fascinating poll data, reporting and first-person accounts on marijuana use, you’ll be able to develop a better sense of the complex and evolving attitudes about  this deeply controversial issue in American life and that it generates discussion where it matters most –  within your own family.  

[lifeatyahoo]

Our Boomerang Employees Share Why They Returned to the ‘Hoo

By Carolyn Clark, Corporate Communications

We call them our boomerangs and we are incredibly proud of these former employees who have come back to work at the ‘Hoo. More than 10% of our workforce have “boomeranged” back to the company! We recently sat down with a few of them to find out why, and we were incredibly inspired by their responses.

Yahoo’s transparency, scale, inclusive environment, sense of play and transformative thinking were just a few of the key themes that came up from our Boomerangs. To hear more about why they returned to Yahoo in their own words, check out this video. 

Interested in a career at Yahoo? We’re hiring! Apply at careers.yahoo.com.

[yahoomail]

Updated Yahoo Mail App Brings You Top Search Results

By Laura Booth, Product Manager

Yahoo Mail strives to get you to the information you need, fast. We’ve recently updated our search experience on desktop, and today, we’re bringing the same feature to iOS and Android. Now, when you search your email using a keyword, we’ll highlight the most relevant messages, in addition to those ordered by date. The time you spend searching for your most relevant emails on your phone will be drastically reduced!

Say you want to pull up information for your upcoming trip, so you search for the keyword “flight itinerary.” Historically, your search results page would sort searches by date, requiring you to scroll through many promotional emails from airlines before finding the right one. Now, you will see up to three most relevant emails at the top of your search results, making finding the info you need that much quicker and easier. And have no fear, all other relevant search results will still be available beneath “Top Results” ordered by date.

“Top Results” is powered by our search ranking and relevancy algorithm that was developed and refined by the Yahoo Mail Research team in Haifa, Israel. We’ve worked hard to get the algorithm and user experience just right, and we’d love to hear your feedback – just go to Settings and tap “Send Feedback.” This new feature is available today, so be sure to update your Yahoo Mail app (iOS | Android)!

[lifeatyahoo]

Yahoo’s Day With the 7th Graders of Chaboya Middle School

By Andrew Schulte, Chief of Staff to the CEO, Yahoo

A few weeks ago, we received nearly two dozen handwritten letters from 7th grade students at Chaboya Middle School in San Jose, all addressed to Marissa Mayer. These incredibly thoughtful and inquisitive letters penned questions about leadership, STEM, being a female CEO, the future of tech and general advice on working for a company like Yahoo. These letters touched and inspired Marissa and the team here, so what better way to answer their questions than a field trip to Yahoo headquarters!

We kicked off the day with an assembly that included an engaging Q&A discussion with Marissa addressing all the students’ top questions. Afterwards, we took them on an all access behind-the-scenes tour of what it’s like to work in Silicon Valley, including what it takes to launch some of our latest mobile products.

The first stop on their tour was our User Experience (UX) Lab where students had a chance to learn first hand about the importance of user feedback in consumer product development. Students met our UX and product teams, and learned how real world testing is critical to innovating and improving on products.

Next up, was a tour of Yahoo Studios, where students got the inside scoop on production, and how we put together a lot of our original video content. A few students even showed great promise as future on-air talent!

Then it was off to the Accessibility Lab, where they learned about the importance of building products that serve all our users, regardless of their physical capabilities. The students had an opportunity for hands-on problem solving to help individuals with hearing or visual impairment, or limited mobility use of our products.

We finished off the tour with a stop by our Publisher Products team, which works on some of Yahoo’s most popular products, like Yahoo News, Yahoo Sports and Yahoo Finance. Here, they got an inside look at a day in the life of an engineer – from coding the personalized homepage stream, to the data and analytics team that helps us make data-driven decisions, to the release engineers that manage quality control for final publishing.

We had just as much fun as the students, and we’d like to send our deepest thanks to Chaboya Middle School, Mr. Joe Ennes, and the 7th grade class for bringing their best and brightest energy to Yahoo. We had an amazing time hosting you, and have tremendous optimism for the great things you’ll achieve in the future!